You may have heard that the God-Emperor Barack I has imperiously
decreed that there will be no more American manned missions to the
Moon. He has ordered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
to cease the planned development of a new rocket intended for that
purpose.

Instead, NASA will limit itself to the study of global warming.

A phenomenon that doesn't exist.

Understand, I have never been a fan of NASA, which has now been
demoted (not entirely undeservedly) from the historic collaboration
that put human footprints on another world, to this country's
equivalent of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East
Anglia.

Nor have I ever believed that the Moon is any kind of logical
stepping stone to the remainder of the Solar System, let alone to the
stars. For reasons I have explained in several of my novels, the
future of our species would be vastly better served by making one of
the asteroids, Pallas or Ceres, the next target for exploration and
settlement.

Or failing that, the increasingly intriguing planet Mars.

All of which is why I feel strange preparing to write what you are
about to read. We've all watched the Obama Administration mishandle
everything it's touched so far. Reluctantly, some of us have come to
the conclusion that the resulting damage is deliberate, that the
revolutionary idea behind Obama's suicidal policies is to destroy the
United States, to break it down completely, so that it can be rebuilt
along lines more pleasing to him and his fellow Marxists, currently in
control. Cambodia's former dictator Pol Pot would think well of this
plan.

Now I think I can see some of the details of that plan, and one
major long range objective. Some of my readers will, too, as soon as I
mention the names of Luis and Walter Alvarez, and that of Robert A.
Heinlein.

The Alvarezes, distinguished father and son scientists, were the
first to figure out, in 1980, the effect on natural history of falling
pieces of rock from space. Most people now believe that the dinosaurs
were wiped out by such an "Extinction Level Event" and that others,
before and afterward, also determined the path that life on Earth has
followed.

Heinlein pondered, in his splendid 1966 novel
The
Moon Is A Harsh Mistress how rocks might be made to fall from space onto various
predetermined targets on Earth, as a means of waging war, using the
Moon as a base for launching them. We now appreciate, thanks to the
Alvarezes, that this tactic is much more effective than even Heinlein
predicted.

At present, several nation-states are preparing to follow the
trail that Americans first blazed into space and to the Moon, among
them, the Communist Chinese. Having given up the Moon, Obama places us
in unspeakable dangerforever and everof a future under the
thumb of the sworn enemies of private capitalism and individual
liberty. Try as I might, I cannot bring myself to believe that this is
unplanned.

Now before we start to hear the hysterical screechings of those
whose only hobby seems to be willfully misunderstanding what brighter
and more articulate individuals have to say about the events and
issues of the day, allow me to describe the quandary we find ourselves
in.

On the one hand, we have a clumsy, inefficient, rather stupid, and
often downright evil government agency, NASA, that could prevent other
countries from gaining a deadly monopoly on the ultimate high ground
that is the Moon by building a base there. On the other hand, the same
government's parasitic stranglehold on the American economy, through
taxation and regulation, makes any private response to this danger
impossible.

I'm reasonably sure that conservative Republicans are going to be
running the government after the 2010 and 2012 elections. I'm equally
sure that many of them will share my concerns in this area. While I
would be the very last individual to advocate relying on NASA "for our
future security", regrettably I fail to see any immediately effective
alternative.

Believe me, I wish to hell I did.

Before the usual bunch of blubbering clowns starts arguing like
liberals, by yelling nouns at me, I want to hear other people's ideas
concerning what might be done about this mess. Obama has treacherously
betrayed us and means to leave us vulnerable to attack and control by
others. Hillary Clinton is trying to help by selling us out to a
United Nations personal disarmament treaty, although even my trusty
Marlin Model 95CB .45/70 isn't going to be much use against a falling
mountain.

Four-time Prometheus Award-winner L. Neil Smith has
been called one of the world's foremost authorities on the ethics
of self-defense. He is the author of more than 25 books, including
The American Zone, Forge of the Elders, Pallas, The Probability
Broach, Hope (with Aaron Zelman), and his collected articles
and speeches, Lever Action, all of which may be purchased
through his website "The Webley Page" at
lneilsmith.org.

Neil is presently at work on Ares, the middle volume
of the epic Ngu Family Cycle, and on Where We Stand:
Libertarian Policy in a Time of Crisis with his daughter, Rylla.

See stunning full-color graphic-novelizations of The
Probability Broach and Roswell, Texas which feature the
art of Scott Bieser at www.BigHeadPress.com
Dead-tree versions may be had through the publisher, or at
www.Amazon.com where you will also find Phoenix Pick editions
of some of Neil's earlier novels. Links to Neil's books at
Amazon.com are on his website